Explanation:
Last Thursday an interplanetary spacecraft flew right past the Earth.
The
above images
show sunlight momentarily
reflected from this spacecraft's solar panels.
No aliens were involved - the
Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)
mission actually originated from Earth. Launched in 1996,
NEAR
zipped past the asteroid
253 Mathilde
last June. This
Earth flyby gravitationally deflects NEAR onto a trajectory
passing the asteroid 433 Eros next year.
Above, NEAR appears to move through the constellation of
Perseus, as
clouds created a changing diffuse white glow.
NEAR was only visible for about 2 minutes from
San Jose, California,
where these image-intensified video camera observations were taken.